Animorphs Drabbles
by Bird of Poetry
Summary: A collection of drabbles written for kamg weekly 100 and other prompt communities on LJ.
1. Test Subjects

Written for the prompt "myth" at kamg_weekly_100.

* * *

You ask of the shipwreck, human?

Many claim to have seen it. But the Kelbrid of the storyteller caste, we know.

Among the ruins of the two spaceships are mangled bodies, preserved in the vault of space. There are many terrestrial bipeds. There is a winged being. And there is a thing.

A thing, you ask?

Listen. There are powers in the galaxy greater than we know, to whom we are small creatures. There are dangers lurking in the spaces between the stars, even for the great powers.

Isn't it better to send the canary down the coal mine first?


	2. The Path Not Taken

Written for the prompt "clement" at kamg_weekly_100.

* * *

Sometimes, I think of what David's life would have been like if I had cast the deciding vote the other way.

The Yeerks would have found him in that alley. Would have taken him, shocked, struggling, uncomprehending, to the Yeerk pool. He would become a total slave, and every day he would see his parents in the same slavery, and know that he was responsible. That if he had just let the blue box be, or kept it for himself as a curio, he and his parents would be free.

Compared to what we did, it would have been mercy.


	3. Two Become One

Written for the prompt "tryst" at kamg_weekly_100.

* * *

This is what keeps Aftran sane, when the human body she traded permanently for her own feels like a stranger's, when the company of the Hork-Bajir grows stale, when the breadth of the hidden valley feels tight as a trap.

This is what keeps her sane: when the osprey unfolds into Cassie's body, falling away like the wrapping from a gift. When she takes Aftran by the hand and leads her out of the valley, into the forest. When they press together close, and whisper the deepest intimacies of their minds, until it feels like their bodies are one again.


	4. A World Apart

_Written for the poly-morphs tumblr._

* * *

She loves them both for who they are, but she also loves them for the way they love each other.

Cassie tries not to intrude. They've created their own life in the woods, one she'll never truly understand. But sometimes, she watches them being _them_: Ax galloping through the meadow with Tobias flying overhead, both of them morphed human and watching TV in Ax's scoop, Tobias perched on Ax's back as they drift off to sleep.

Sometimes, she joins them. More often, she just watches, in awe of a family that found each other across the great expanses of space.


	5. What They Might Have Done

Cassie knows she shouldn't, but she can't help it. She morphs horse and goes for a run.

In the meadow, Ax is running too, for the same reasons she is. They run together for a long time before Ax says, «We almost killed a child tonight.»

Cassie remembers the child-Controller, trapped under the rubble they created. She knows that to Andalites, it is unthinkable to kill a child. «Yeah. We did.»

«Thank you,» Ax says. «For going back to rescue him.»

Cassie demorphs and buries her fingers in soft blue fur until he finally stops shaking, thinking of their almost-sins.


	6. Children of the Future

Marco introduces Ax to liquor, and they tell each other about their childhoods.

"Isn't it fucked up," says Marco, "that the boys your age were brought up to be soldiers?"

Ax observes, "It is unfair – unfffffair – that you are treated differently from your father because of your skin tone."

By now, they're sprawled together, limbs overlapping. "What should the world be like, then? For kids?"

"I do not know," says Ax, his breath dizzying with liquor-smell. "That is the world we must create, after the war." His mouth shapes words against Marco's cheek. "That is what we must hope for."


	7. Signal Transmission

"Is he, uh. Taking visitors?" Jake asks.

«I am his uncle, not his keeper. We cannot force our comfort upon him.»

"Then what can I do?"

«I do not know. I – » His thought-voice breaks. «I've _tried,_ Prince Jake.»

Jake puts his hands on Ax's shoulders and squeezes, then pulls him into a hug. "Of course you have," he murmurs. He realizes he's holding back tears. What can either of them do?

"When he's ready to talk about Taylor, we'll be there," Jake says. "All of us."

Somewhere overhead, he hears leaves rustle, and a wide-winged silhouette floats away. Message received.


	8. Where Kinship Lies

When we go swimming in the creek, I notice Ax staring at his body, then at mine.

"What's up, Ax?"

"It is a shame I cannot acquire DNA from a morph," he says.

"I think I'm missing the connection."

"If I could, I would acquire your human DNA and perform the Frolis Maneuver again. We are family. My human body should resemble yours."

"Ax, I don't have Elfangor's DNA, but he's still a part of me. So I can be a part of you. Family isn't blood." I reach out and squeeze Ax's shoulder. "It's what we give each other."


	9. Mercy

Written for kamg_weekly_100 to the prompt "It was pity that stayed his hand, and mercy, not to strike without need."

* * *

Tobias spat up toilet water, dripped on the tile floor, and steeled himself. Jake made the bullies go away. That meant he had to be even bigger and meaner than they were.

"Please," he begged, as soon as he caught a breath.

"Shh. Don't talk." Jake bent down and pounded Tobias' back firmly but gently. The last of the toilet water rushed from his mouth. He caught Tobias under the armpits and helped him to his feet. Finally, Tobias let himself relax against Jake's broad frame.

Not bigger and meaner than the bullies. Stronger. There was a difference, after all.


	10. Dress-Up

It started when Marco came to Rachel's bedroom looking for her and saw Cassie trying on her clothes instead.

Marco demorphed and smirked. "You tied that wrapskirt wrong."

"Well, if you're so smart, show me how," Cassie challenged him.

Rachel came in to see Cassie completely enveloped in flowing white skirt, like an angel, and Marco in one of her blouses, his collarbones and shoulders bare. They looked up at her, and in her borrowed clothes they looked strangely innocent, almost like children.

They wanted to wear what she wore, touch what she touched. Maybe she wasn't tainted, after all.


	11. Janus

Written for kamg_weekly_100 to the prompt "Of changing and of shifting shape." Janus is the Roman two-faced god of transitions, gateways, and liminal spaces.

* * *

Tobias stares at himself in the mirror Rachel brought. "Is this what I really look like?" he says.

Ax and Rachel nod.

"What if my eyes were a little too small? Would you know the difference?"

"Tobias, why are you so worried?" says Rachel.

"Because I'm not sure I remember my face right when I morph human. What if I picture it wrong and I'm not really myself anymore?"

«The DNA remembers,» says Ax. «The morph remembers.»

"And even if it didn't," says Rachel, hugging Tobias, "we would."

«When you are a hawk, we keep your human face with us.»


	12. To Protect and Defend

Tobias, Rachel, and Jake were on their way to junior prom when they heard pained cries and cruel laughter coming from the playground.

Tobias gave nothing away, but Rachel and Jake knew that it hurt him as much as if he were the one being beaten.

"Stay here, Tobias," Rachel said. "We'll deal with this."

"I'll help," Tobias said.

Jake clasped his shoulder. "Please. Let us handle this one."

Tobias let them. The laughter and the cries ended, replaced by Rachel's fury and Jake's steadfastness.

Tobias didn't have to face everything himself, he realized. Thanks to Elfangor, he had protectors.


	13. Right-Hand Man

Marco always knew that Jake was going to be someone important. From childhood, he wanted to be the Riker to Jake's Picard, the McCoy to his Kirk, the Han to his Luke. When Jake became Somebody, Marco would be his right-hand man.

But Star Wars never showed the scene where Luke has nightmares about his father and Han holds him while he gasps and shakes. Riker doesn't have to act the ruthless tactician so Picard can live with himself.

Marco hadn't known what it meant to be the right-hand man – but he would have wanted it anyway, if he had.


	14. A Duty Shared

After the adventure with the Time Matrix, Jake worried what would happen if he died. Would his friends he'd come to love endure without him? What about his family?

He shared his fears with Ax, more soldier than any of them.

«If you should fall,» Ax said, «I will carry your burden.»

"Which burden?" Jake had so many.

«I will do my utmost to free your brother, as you would have done for mine.»

Jake felt feather-light. The thought had weighed heavily on him. But he trusted Ax's slender shoulders to bear it, as much as anyone's in the universe.


	15. Scoop Nights

"You work together so well," says Peter. "The three of you. How do you do it?"

"Tobias is recon, Ax is intelligence, I'm tactical," Marco says. "Like Star Trek."

"That's not what I mean. A boy, a hawk, and an Andalite living together in the woods. How does that work?"

«We let Marco sleep in and he puts up with us,» Tobias says. That satisfies Peter's curiosity.

Tobias doesn't tell him how Marco clutches Ax for warmth in the night, Tobias perched on the curve of his blade. Even when they wake at dawn, he can't bear to sleep alone.


	16. Family Photographs

"What's that?" says Marco, peering at the book Cassie's holding.

It's too late to hide it. "Family photo album. That's me, my mom, and Grammy."

«I can see the connection.» Tobias is perched nearby. Even hawk-shaped, she can tell he's drinking in the photos like he's parched. Marco just looks sad.

"We'll find your mom, Marco," she says. "And Tobias, you have Ax."

«We could get a picture of the six of us.»

"Where would we keep it?" Marco says.

He's right. That picture would be dangerous in the wrong hands. "We couldn't." She smiles at them. "But… we'd know."


End file.
